Little Gem Lettuce with Dates, Red Onion, and Gorgonzola Dolce

Name: Little Gem Lettuce with Dates, Red Onion, and Gorgonzola Dolce
Yield: serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: 10 ounces Gorgonzola dolce; 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon Spanish sherry vinegar; 2 cups strained whole-milk Greek yogurt; 1/4 cup buttermilk; 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste; 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves; 4 large garlic cloves, grated; 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste; 1/2 teaspoon fresh coarsely ground black pepper, plus more to taste; 12 to18 1/8-inch-thin slices of red onion; 3 heads Little Gem lettuce or 1 head iceberg lettuce, quartered, or 3 small hearts of romaine; 3 Medjool dates, pits removed; 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves; Fresh coarsely ground black pepper

January 26, 2012

My two favorite salads in the world are a properly prepared Caesar salad and an iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing, neither of which have any place in an Italian restaurant. Just as I sneaked the Caesar salad in under the guise of a tricolore (see page 98), here I disguised the iceberg wedge sufficiently so that my customers don’t realize that I’m serving a wedge salad, an American classic, in a Pizzeria. I don’t know where I got the idea to throw the dates on the salad, but the contrast of their sweetness with the pungent Gorgonzola really makes this.

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